WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Catalog giant Sears Holdings Corp. is under fire for installing what critics say is spyware on customers' computers when they join its online community.

Privacy advocates says the software program -- which tracks every Web site users visit and every search, purchase or other transaction they make, including e-mail they send, and sends details to an online market research company -- is spyware and is banned by federal trade regulations.

For its part, the company says it goes to "great lengths" to disclose the nature of the program users' have installed on their computers.

According to privacy specialist and Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ben Edelman, Sears' "My SHC Community" program falls short of the standards required for disclosure of such software by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"The FTC requires that, before any such tracking programs are installed, consumers give 'express consent,'" Edelman told United Press International, quoting from a recent commission settlement with two spyware vendors.